As the top law enforcement official in King County, it’s Leesa Manion’s job to keep guns out of the hands of children. And the urgency is only increasing. While violent crime in general is trending downward, among juveniles it remains stubbornly high.
As does the number of youth victims.
Thwarted by the state Legislature, which, incredibly, upheld a law allowing minors five convictions for gun possession before a judge can sentence them to prison, Manion, the King County prosecutor, has been racking her brain for another way to intervene.
Her latest idea: using the law that gives police the power to temporarily remove guns from at-risk adults, but tweaking it for juveniles. Sometimes called “red flag laws,” these Extreme Risk Protection Orders (known as ERPOs) come into play when a person threatens to harm themselves or others. This year, Manion’s office has received more than 100 ERPO filings — mostly regarding adults.
But since July, she has begun to deploy the same tool when young people make threats, serving ERPOs in the homes of at least six students who indicated plans for mass violence and showed the means for carrying it out. That includes kids in the Bellevue, Renton and Bothell school districts.
This is nowhere near the 140 referrals for juvenile gun crimes that have poured into Manion’s office during 2025. ERPO hearings are civil proceedings — not criminal — aimed solely at barring access to firearms. They’re a proactive, preventive intervention, in other words, not something that happens after a crime has been committed.
Often in these cases, the guns are owned by parents who have no idea their kids are carrying weapons or making threats online. An ERPO served on a mom or dad about their child can be, at the very least, a powerful wake-up call.
Manion is now asking the Metropolitan King County Council to expand her fledgling pilot program with funding for an additional attorney who would handle youth ERPOs exclusively, as well as money for two sheriff’s deputies who would work with the project.
County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, a staunch gun-rights supporter, says Manion’s idea deserves serious consideration. Yet the budget proposed for next year by King County Executive Shannon Braddock includes not one dime for it.
Braddock also has declined to fund Manion’s second effort aimed at combating youth violence: money for an additional attorney in the Safer Schools program, which coordinates with K-12 districts when students have been referred for gun charges or are truant. There’s considerable crossover here. Of the 51 youths charged with unlawful gun possession in 2023-24, 85% had irregular school attendance.
Bulking up these initiatives would cost less than $1 million total, a modest amount when weighed against the potential carnage that could be avoided. Maybe the council can find efficiencies, like funding an attorney who could work with both the Safer Schools and juvenile ERPO projects simultaneously.
Tough economic times force tough choices, no question. But Manion’s efforts to get ahead of youth crime should be commended, supported and eyed for expansion.
